New Delhi, Feb 3 (IANS): Formula 1’s legendary designer Adrian Newey has raised concerns about Red Bull Racing’s struggles with the RB20 as the 2024 season progressed, suggesting that a lack of experience within the team may have contributed to their inability to resolve key driveability issues.
Speaking to Auto Motor und Sport, Newey—who will officially leave Red Bull in early 2025 before starting his new role as Managing Technical Partner at Aston Martin on March 1—expressed concerns about the team’s development trajectory and how they allowed the car’s handling issues to escalate.
Red Bull entered the 2024 season as the reigning champions after a record-breaking 2023 campaign, where Max Verstappen secured 19 wins out of 20 races, and the team dominated both the Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championships.
The new season began in a similar fashion, with Verstappen winning seven of the first ten races. However, as the season progressed, rivals McLaren and Ferrari rapidly closed the gap, leading to a dramatic shift in the competitive order.
While Verstappen clinched his fourth consecutive Drivers’ Championship, McLaren ultimately snatched the Constructors’ title, with Ferrari also overtaking Red Bull for second place in the standings.
Newey pointed out that Red Bull’s RB20 began showing signs of handling difficulties even in the latter part of the 2023 season, and the problem continued into 2024.
“I think Red Bull, from what I could see, the ’24 car and even through the very last stages of ’23, was starting to become more difficult to drive,” Newey said.
While Verstappen managed to cope with the car’s tricky characteristics, teammate Sergio Perez struggled significantly, leading to a growing performance gap between the two drivers.
“Max could handle that; it didn’t suit him, but he could handle it. Checo [Sergio Perez] couldn’t, so you started seeing more of a difference in performance between the teammates.”
Newey admitted that he had been concerned about the issue, but suggested that Red Bull’s inexperience in handling such challenges may have led to them persisting with a flawed development path.
“It’s something I was starting to become concerned about, but not many people in the organisation seemed to be very concerned. From what I can see from the outside—but I don’t know—the guys at Red Bull, this is no criticism, but I think they just perhaps through lack of experience kept going in that same direction, and the problem became more and more acute to the point that even Max found it difficult to drive.”
Newey was also asked whether Red Bull might have tried to solve the driveability problems through set-up changes rather than a more fundamental redesign. While he acknowledged that set-up adjustments can help to an extent, he stressed that they cannot fully resolve underlying design flaws.
“Set-up can mask problems to an extent, but the problem is still there,” he explained. “To me, set-up is simply optimizing the characteristics of the car… but it’s mainly about complementing those characteristics rather than fixing a fundamental issue.”
His comments suggest that Red Bull’s struggles in 2024 were not just about rivals catching up but also about internal missteps in handling the RB20’s growing driveability concerns.
Following the announcement of his departure from Red Bull last May, Newey gradually stepped away from F1 projects, shifting his focus to the RB17 hypercar. However, his vast experience in designing championship-winning cars will now benefit Aston Martin, where he is set to join on March 1 as Managing Technical Partner.